this and that...

"My goal is to yus good mamrs."
My goal is to use good manners.

Cullen's class made New Years Resolutions... it was cute to see what they all wrote and came up with. :) It's nice to see my hard work on manners is paying off for Cullen. :) In fact, today Mrs. Lohr told the class that Cullen ALWAYS has such good manners, so he got to get up and help her on the smart board today. :) He was thrilled! {So am I!} When I help in the lunch room, I really notice the lack of manners. Who knows... maybe the older kids think they are too cool for it??

Another note on Cullen; he has my cell phone number memorized! I'm so proud of him... I just started working on it with him over Christmas break. Not that he would ever get separated from me, he's very cautious about that. Finn is another story!

Some funny things Finn said today: "Cats don't watch TV because they only have one eye." I had to explain to him that most cats have two eyes, just grandma and grandpa's cat has one...

After we dropped Sean off at class, I ran to Walgreens and had to wake Finn up from a much needed cat nap. He was really grumpy in the store. As I was paying the two women in line behind me started talking to Finn. He was not having it. They told him he was such a handsome little boy. He frowned at them and said "No I not!" They laughed and asked him "What is your name?" He crossed his arms and said "NOTHING!" They laughed harder and said "Well, hi there Nothing.... you sure are cute!" Then he finally smiled at them. The lady checking us out said, "how can you be grumpy when you have such beautiful red hair?" Then he turned to her and said "I don't like it when you say that." He was in rare form and had everyone cracking up! If I had a dime for every compliment on Finn's hair I'd be a billionaire. I don't know if he's catching on to everyone's comments on his hair yet or not... I think he was just being difficult because I woke him up from his cat nap. As I pushed the cart away the lady behind me said "Mom, he really is a cute little boy!"

basketball

Seeing who they are guarding.

There is our little #3!

Warming up before the game.

Cullen had his first-ever basketball game Saturday. Sean and I had a good laugh. COMPLETE organized chaos!! Some kids knew what they were doing. Most kids didn't know what was going on. And a few kids were just spinning in circles until they were dizzy. (Thankfully that was not Cullen.)

life :)

Just a glimpse of our bedtime tonight with the boys. :)

Finn couldn't stop jumping, when I asked him what he was doing he told me he was getting his engines ready. He sure is into the Cars movies. :) He likes to pretend to be Lightning McQueen and Finn McMissile (how fitting....)

Cullen has really enjoyed learning about Octopus this week at school. He's been telling us all about them at home... and he is SHOCKED when we don't know tidbits about them. :) It is nice to know a little more than your parents now and again...

Tomorrow is Cullen's first basketball game! He's excited and a little nervous. :)

Hunter Ice Festival

I like the foam on this one...

motorcycle

ANGRY BIRDS! This was our family favorite!
Too bad Cullen left his hat in the car...

I hope this guy won!

A mommy and baby elephant.

The boys bowled a game... :)

A very cold carriage!

A game of air ice hockey.
The also had a ping pong table and a real ice bar,
where they were selling ice cream... We went for the
hot chocolate instead!

helicopter ice sculpture

R2D2

a puma

We all put 3 layers of clothes on, braved the cold (24*) and drove to Niles, Michigan (8 miles North of us) for their Hunter Ice Festival. It was really cool. Ha, ha, ha.... There were over 150 ice sculptures around the downtown area. We stopped at the local chocolate shop and got a hot chocolate to warm up... it was really good! Much better than our Swiss Miss at home! :) They had lights on all the sculptures, I bet it is really pretty at nighttime!

snow tubing

We had a fun day with the Wilson Family snow tubing. We were there 3 hours and it was exhausting. It's exhausting just getting the boys into their snow gear! Both of our boys were great sports, neither complained of the cold (18*) and Cullen even carried his tube back up the hill the whole time. We had fun making trains to gain speed.

It was getting pretty crowded when we decided to leave, I'm glad we did. Finn and I were taken out by a train of 8 tubes just before we left! They hit us just as we were standing up at the bottom of the hill. We both ended up on top of them and traveled a bit further down the hill. :) Luckily no one got hurt, but I bet I'll be sore tomorrow!!

old man winter is here!

When Mother Nature gives you snow..... make snow cream!!! :)

Old man winter is here with a vengeance! It snowed for over 24 hours straight, starting Thursday afternoon. It's like living inside a snow globe! Sean shoveled 3 times... again that wet, HEAVY stuff. I'm guessing we have 8 inches? The boys still had school, as normal on Friday morning... Fine with me, it's a long weekend anyway (Monday off for Martin Luther King Day). Anyway, after a dinner of homemade chicken and vegetable soup, we made snow cream for dessert. Cullen helped me scoop up a large bowl of fresh snow and we added a little vanilla and a can of sweetened condensed milk... and voila! Snow cream. :) It was actually pretty good! I've already got some homemade "sno cone" syrup in the fridge, ready for round 2 of snow.

This weekend should be a fun one... today we are going tubing/sledding with our friends, the Wilsons. Crock Pot has got some Potato Corn Chowder cooking... Then after church tomorrow, we may head up to Niles, MI (7 miles North) for their Winter Ice Festival. "It’s a whole weekend of ice carving, ice fights, ice skating, ice sculptures at every corner, even an ice bar, and what else, ice cream! When it’s time to warm up, head into the YMCA for some hot chocolate, or do the “Chili Crawl” chili cook-off! It’s sure going to be an ice-tastic weekend!"

I guess you can say we are embracing the weather!! :)

Happy New Year!

Poppers!! Always a favorite.

Finn started helping himself to the poppers...

Happy 2012!!

Toasting to 2012.

Waiting for the cuckoo to come out of the clock.

Visiting with great papa and gg on New Years Day.

Finn thought the poppers were hilarious!

Finn helping Daddy shovel. :)

The boys had a great time making paths in the snow.

The grotto after the rosary last night. It sure was pretty with the glistening snow!
I ran into my buddy, Brother John from Kansas City again. He asked how things were in Topeka. :) There were so few people there last night, that I had to lead the last section of the rosary. Pressure! I've never done that before (lead the rosary for others)... but I did just fine. :)
The lights on the upper left are from inside the golden dome.

The last part of our drive back to IN was like a blizzard.
We ended up with between 8 and 9 inches!
We are having flashbacks to our Fort Drum days...
actually I think Fort Drum was worse! (thankfully)

Merry Christmas 2011

Science City in Kansas City

This was one of Finn's favorites...
He loved that all the buttons controlled different
things in the model trains and city.

With cousin Clare. :)

Digging for dinosaur bones...
Cullen's got his safety goggles on. :)

Riding the train...
We need to count how many different trains they've ridden!

wind tunnel

We met Uncle Johnny, Aunt Meghan, and cousins Clare and Ellie at Science City when we were back visiting over Christmas. It was fun! The boys had a great time checking everything out!!

video of Christmas eve

My sister made a video of our family together on Christmas eve. This captures Christmas eve at my grandparents house so much better than any photo can... I'm so glad she does this, it will be wonderful to look back on years from now.